Kicking off a marketing campaign can be exciting, but the best part is what comes next: the optimization phase.
The optimization phase is when the real magic of marketing begins. You can look at the results of your initial campaign, learn from your data, and make adjustments to lead to better results.

Through conversion rate optimization (CRO), you fine-tune your methods to drive even more demand, leads, and sales.

If you recently launched a new campaign or are fielding leads online continually, learn how to use conversion rate optimization to iterate successfully and boost your results.

What Is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)?

A conversion is a point in the buyer’s journey where a prospect takes action to move closer to working with you. Conversion rate optimization is the process of adjusting conversion point details to increase the percentage of people who reach the point and take action. CRO involves analyzing user behavior, identifying barriers, and testing modifications to website elements, user flows, and messaging to increase the percentage of visitors who complete desired actions.

For example, a conversion point on a website might be a contact form. A conversion takes place when a website visitor completes the form. Through CRO, you might adjust the style of the form, the copy above it, or the page leading to the contact form to increase the number of website visitors who fill out the form.

SpotOn’s CRO specialist, Natalie Boyd, believes conversion rate optimization separates good marketing campaigns from great marketing campaigns. “This will be the year of optimization. High-performing teams are already adapting based on data trends,“ she says.

“More and more businesses are focusing on optimizing their online presence through advanced CRO strategies, particularly by leveraging AI, personalized experiences, and deep customer insights to maximize conversions across the entire customer journey,” says Natalie.

If you want to drive results from your marketing efforts, you need to use conversion rate optimization tactics. We’ll show you how.

How to Start Conversation Rate Optimization

To start conversation rate optimization, you must have a few things in place. Here is what you need before you can start CRO tactics.

Goals

As with all good marketing tactics, you must start with your objectives. What do you want to accomplish? How fast do you want to get there? Start with a strategic marketing plan that answers these questions (and more).

Knowing your goals will help you identify which phase of the sales funnel you should focus on and which customers you need to reach.

For example, if your goal is quickly increasing sales, you may need to focus deeper in the funnel on marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) or sales-qualified leads (SQLs). If your goal is driving a volume of new leads, you might need to focus on the top-of-the-funnel and a broader brand campaign.

Sales Funnel with Identified Conversion Points

A sales funnel is crucial for conversion rate optimization. Outline a funnel that defines the buyer’s journey and the exact points when a conversation moves a customer to the next phase of doing business with you.

Don’t limit this process to your marketing team. Companies, especially B2B brands, can benefit from bringing both sales and marketing teams to the table to outline their sales funnel.

Documented Marketing Plan and Data

You cannot improve your results if you don’t know what your results are or what elements might change them. Documenting your plan and collecting data is essential for conversion rate optimization.

At SpotOn, we use detailed documents that define each campaign’s:

Platforms
Audiences
Keywords
Messaging/Creative
Goals and KPIs

We also collect robust data and analytics on every campaign. We use tools that track metrics like the below, but not limited to:

Views and clicks
Conversions
Conversation rates
Engagement metrics
Budget
Attribution
Speed through funnel

Website Session Recordings

If you want to use CRO to boost conversion rates on your website, you need one more element: session recordings.

Session recordings are videos that show how website visitors use your website. While analytics provide numbers on clicks and bounce rates, session recordings give you a visual representation of user behavior and help you understand not just what is happening but why. Videos show how visitors navigate your pages, where they get stuck, and what elements drive engagement.

With website session recordings, you can:

Pinpoint friction points that cause drop-offs
Identify usability issues affecting conversions
Test and validate changes based on actual user behavior

Too often, website session recordings are overlooked in the CRO process. Many brands skip this step. Don’t make the same mistake. Spend time watching visitors navigate your website and use real-world data to take your CRO to the next level.

Need Help With Conversion Rate Optimization?

To drive the best results from conversion rate optimization, you need a strong foundation. If you are missing any of the elements needed to optimize your campaigns, let’s talk.

SpotOn can help you develop the strategy and data needed to inform CRO tactics and provide a framework for continuous improvement. Contact us to learn more and get started.

Dive Into Conversation Rate Optimization

Once you have your goals, a clear sales funnel with identified conversation points, data about past campaigns, and insights into how audiences use your website, you can get started with CRO tactics. Here are the steps to take to optimize your conversion rates.

1. Look for Trends

Dig into the data collected during your initial campaigns and ask questions that identify trends and patterns. Look for successes and failures, and consider how you can repeat wins and prevent future misses. Answer questions like:

Which ads have the highest returns?
What audience segments are the most engaged?
Which content is driving the most engagement?
Where are prospects dropping off?
What platforms are driving the best results?
How quickly do prospects convert?

2. Get a Little Help From AI

If you are struggling to find trends in data, put artificial intelligence (AI) to work. AI marketing tools can be very useful for combing through data sets to identify patterns and make predictions and suggestions.

See if your campaign platform offers AI insights and optimization ideas. If so, put them to work.
Use machine learning AI tools to create forecasts and make recommendations.
Plug your copy into content generators to identify possible improvements to sentiment and messaging.
Ask a chatbot to analyze your campaign results and identify trends and opportunities.
Use AI-driven competitive intelligence tools to see what is working for others in your industry.

3. Identify Conversion Point Adjustments

Once you assess the results and trends of your past campaigns, identify what you can improve and adjust to produce better results. Look at the details of your campaign, and see how you can make tweaks to your:

Budget
Channels/Platforms
Audience Targeting
Messaging/Copy
Landing Page Design
Creative Assets
Form Styles

Adjusting an element of a conversation point presents an opportunity to change the results. Work to improve each conversation point so that more and more audiences take the next step in the funnel.

4. Use A/B Testing

Once you identify conversion optimization point adjustments, put them to the test. Use A/B testing to see which option performs best.

A/B testing puts two versions of similar marketing campaigns against each other to determine which one produces the best results. For example, you could run an A/B test by changing a headline, button color, subject line, etc. Through an A/B test, you can see how one slight change can lead to better results.

To conduct accurate A/B tests:

Start with a hypothesis. Choose an element you want to test for possible improvement.
Only change one element. Don’t change multiple elements or you won’t be able to tell which change led to the shift in results.
Use the same sample size. Present both versions to the same size audience to get the most accurate comparison.

Drive Better Marketing Results

To unlock the real magic of marketing, you can’t run one campaign one time.

Strategically launch and optimize campaigns so they incrementally perform better. Learning from marketing launches is the best (and only) way to identify the highest-performing audiences, messaging, and platforms that move you toward your marketing goals.

If you are struggling to see results from your marketing campaigns, let’s talk. Our team can help you review past launches, identify trends for improvement, and launch iterative campaigns that produce better and better results. Learn more about our CRO process and how it can help your brand. Contact us today.

How To Use Conversion Rate Optimization to Increase Demand, Leads, and Sales